Occupational status and life satisfaction in the UK: The miserable middle?

Yannis Georgellis; Andrew E. Clark; Emmanuel Apergis; Catherine Robinson

doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2022.10.045

Occupational status and life satisfaction in the UK: The miserable middle?

Yannis Georgellis, Andrew E. Clark, Emmanuel Apergis, Catherine Robinson

School of Business and Law

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

We use British panel data to explore the link between occupational status and life satisfaction. We find puzzling evidence for men of a U-shaped relationship in cross-section data: employees in medium-status occupations report lower life satisfaction scores than those of employees in either low- or high-status occupations. This puzzle disappears in panel data: the satisfaction of any man rises as he moves up the status ladder. The culprit seems to be immobility: the miserable middle is caused by men who have always been in medium-status occupations. There is overall little evidence of a link between occupational status and life satisfaction for women, although this relationship for higher-educated women does look more like that for men.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	509-527
Number of pages	19
Journal	Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization
Volume	204
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2022.10.045
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2022

Keywords

Occupational status
Life satisfaction
Occupational mobility

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10.1016/j.jebo.2022.10.045Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Occupational status and life satisfaction in the UKFinal published version, 1.04 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

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title = "Occupational status and life satisfaction in the UK: The miserable middle?",

abstract = "We use British panel data to explore the link between occupational status and life satisfaction. We find puzzling evidence for men of a U-shaped relationship in cross-section data: employees in medium-status occupations report lower life satisfaction scores than those of employees in either low- or high-status occupations. This puzzle disappears in panel data: the satisfaction of any man rises as he moves up the status ladder. The culprit seems to be immobility: the miserable middle is caused by men who have always been in medium-status occupations. There is overall little evidence of a link between occupational status and life satisfaction for women, although this relationship for higher-educated women does look more like that for men.",

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AU - Clark, Andrew E.

AU - Apergis, Emmanuel

AU - Robinson, Catherine

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Y1 - 2022/12/1

N2 - We use British panel data to explore the link between occupational status and life satisfaction. We find puzzling evidence for men of a U-shaped relationship in cross-section data: employees in medium-status occupations report lower life satisfaction scores than those of employees in either low- or high-status occupations. This puzzle disappears in panel data: the satisfaction of any man rises as he moves up the status ladder. The culprit seems to be immobility: the miserable middle is caused by men who have always been in medium-status occupations. There is overall little evidence of a link between occupational status and life satisfaction for women, although this relationship for higher-educated women does look more like that for men.

AB - We use British panel data to explore the link between occupational status and life satisfaction. We find puzzling evidence for men of a U-shaped relationship in cross-section data: employees in medium-status occupations report lower life satisfaction scores than those of employees in either low- or high-status occupations. This puzzle disappears in panel data: the satisfaction of any man rises as he moves up the status ladder. The culprit seems to be immobility: the miserable middle is caused by men who have always been in medium-status occupations. There is overall little evidence of a link between occupational status and life satisfaction for women, although this relationship for higher-educated women does look more like that for men.

KW - Occupational status

KW - Life satisfaction

KW - Occupational mobility

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DO - 10.1016/j.jebo.2022.10.045

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SP - 509

EP - 527

JO - Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization

JF - Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization

ER -

Occupational status and life satisfaction in the UK: The miserable middle?

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Keywords

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